Wonderful, Colorful

Words

Every great chef knows that color is important to culinary success. People

appreciate gourmet dishes not just because of their delicious taste, but also because of their beautiful appearance.

Color is also essential in writing.

Colorful writing is writing that paints vivid pictures in the reader’s mind. This kind of writing is achieved through careful and clever word choice

and selective and detailed descriptions.

This presentation will focus on choosing

wonderful, colorful words.

Precise Nouns Nifty Names Wonderful Clear Pronouns Vivid Verbs Artful Adjectives Colorful Smart Adverbs Handy Prepositions Words Friendly Conjunctions Amusing Interjections Trusty Transitions

Precise Nouns and Nifty Names: Nouns are simply names. Be specific and intentional in your use of nouns to identify the persons, places, things, and ideas you write about. Sample: The woman liked to place fresh-cut flowers on the kitchen table each morning. Revised: Miss Henrietta liked to place fresh-cut daisies on the kitchen table each morning.

Clear Pronouns: Pronouns take the place of nouns to help writers avoid needless and confusing repetition. They also serve to identify the speaker. To be effective, however, pronouns must match their antecedents (the nouns they are replacing) in number, person, and gender. Sample: Mr. Smith informed its students that she would not be in charge of today’s lesson. Revised: Mr. Smith informed his students that he would not be in charge of today’s lesson.

Vivid Verbs: Verbs show action or state of being. They are the heart of a sentence, so we must choose them wisely. Use action verbs as much as possible, searching for words that paint a powerful and vivid picture of the action. Consider the connotation (feelings associated with words) of the verbs you choose. Use the “active voice” (let the subject carry out the action) whenever possible. Sample: The sheep was eaten by a lion. Revised:The lion devoured the sheep.

Artful Adjectives: Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They help readers visualize a scene by appealing to the senses. Substitute vague and boring adjectives with beautiful and artful ones (a thesaurus will help). Hyphenated adjectives (also known as single-thought or compound adjectives) can add a powerful punch to your descriptions (don’t overdo it, though). Sample: Jamie wore an ugly sweater to school. Revised: Jamie wore a puke-colored, tattered sweater to school.

Smart Adverbs: Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs by answering how, when, how often, where, or how much. They help provide precise information and can be used to add emphasis to a statement. However, they should not be used as “crutches” for weak verbs. For example, instead of “he ran quickly” you should write “he sprinted” or “he dashed.” Examples: This is totally cool! He is terribly funny sometimes. I failed to understand properly.

Handy Prepositions: Prepositions are found at the beginning of prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases add information to a sentence by acting like adjectives or adverbs. They are very useful when writing descriptions. Examples: The lemonade is on the table. The boy is sitting behind the table. He is full of excitement.

Friendly Conjunctions: Conjunctions connect words, groups of words, and sentences. They are especially useful in constructing elaborate and compound sentences. The most common conjunctions are the “FANBOYS”: For And Nor But Or Yet So

Amusing Interjections: These stand-alone beauties can add pizzazz to any mode of writing, but we must be careful not to overuse them. Here are a few examples: Yes Cool No Great Ouch Well Help Gee Wow OMG Oh Oops Yikes My goodness

Trusty Transitions: Transitions include conjunctions and certain adverbs. They’re like bridges that link ideas so they’re easier to follow. They also clarify relationships between ideas. There are many types of transition words. The most common are the “chronology” transitions. Examples: first, to begin with, second, next, also, then, before, after, during, later, suddenly, meanwhile, finally

Suggestion: Start the following lists of words and keep them in your writer’s notebook. Add to the lists whenever you encounter wonderful, colorful words. Nifty Names and Terrific Titles Sensory Details (hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching) Better Words (other words for say, look, go, etc.)

Figurative Language (similes, metaphors, etc.)

Awesome Words (cool vocabulary words to “own”)

Yum!

Bibliography Horsfield Alan. Fiction Writing. Westminster: Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 2008. Kemper, Dave, Patrick Sebranek, and Verne Meyer. Write Source. Wilmington: Great Source Education Group, 2005. Lee, Martin and Marcia Miller. 40 Elaboration Activities. New York: Scholastic. 2007.

This PowerPoint presentation was created by Ms. Elsa Pla, the Write Cook. www.writecook.com